Nebula Prototype: Liminal Architecture

Nebula Prototype is a sculpture group featured in the travelling exhibition, “Sagmeister & Walsh: Beauty” presented by MAK, Vienna; Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt am Main; the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MKG); and Fondation D’Entreprise Martell, France. The exhibition is curated by graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister and Jessica Walsh, bringing together over sixty objects spanning all disciplines and various cultures and eras, exploring the concept of beauty and its persisting influence on the human psyche. 

Nebula Prototype consists of a cave-like cluster of suspended, densely massed spheres and shells formed with diagrid lattices of metal and acrylic. These nest-like structures are encrusted with glistening glass flasks carrying chemical solutions. The dense grouping of material is surrounded by a cloud of lace-like skeletal membrane swirling around and above the suspended spheres. The project uses fabrication methods of cross-linked double-shell scaffold systems, exploring resilient, lightweight construction techniques of the future. Just as Sagmeister and Walsh argue that beauty is “more than just a superficial strategy”, the experimental forms featured in Nebula Prototype suggest that immersive beauty can be generated through intense repetition of meticulously crafted simple components, creating an extraordinarily rich and complex whole.